Icy conditions didn’t keep the skiers away

Skiers getting ready to ski the Great Divide at Lake Louise

The Great Divide was groomed and trackset yesterday, but with last night’s rain the conditions were icy this morning. When I arrived at 9 a.m, I was fortunate to get the last spot in the parking lot.

The Great Divide is double trackset with a skating lane.

The classic skiers I encountered were having success on skin skis. I used my Fischer Twin Skins and they were excellent in these conditions. Thankfully, the Great Divide is relatively flat for the first 6K. It would have been suicidal to try going down the hill at the divide on classic skis(for me, anyway). I’m sure the younger skiers enjoyed the speed. 

Kristina and her training group on the Great Divide

Plenty of skiers turned out for Cross Country Alberta’s Lake Louise Camp hosted by Edmonton Nordic. Most of the training group skiers were skating. 

I saw tracks from a few skaters on Moraine Lake road. It still needs more snow to enable tracksetting. The tracksetting crew has done a good job at smoothing out the ruts from the big truck. 

According to Tanya’s report, they groomed the skating lane at the Great Divide later this afternoon. 

The tracksetting crew did a good job at smoothing out the ruts on Moraine Lake road

It was +1 at Lake Louise at 1 pm. In Canmore at 2 pm, the temperature was -7 and the snow guns were going full blast at the nordic centre. As I write this at 5 pm it has just started snowing in Calgary. With the cooler weather and 5-10 cm of new snow, the trails should be in good shape after another round of grooming. 

Replacing the skins on your skin skis

The skins on skin skis wear out after a lot of use. At West Bragg Creek on Thursday, I was surprised that I was getting no grip on my skin skis. The  grip was awesome in the past, and I knew I hadn’t lost any weight! With new skins, they were performing well again today. 

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  1. So glad you said that about replacing the skins! I think I need to do the same! Thanks!

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